The consumption figures in the March US Advance Retail Sales report beat estimates across the board, helping disperse fears of a more concerted slowdown in the world’s largest economy. In an encouraging development, the Retail Sales Control Group figure – which is used in computing the headline GDP figure – beat expectations as well, giving some hope to a modest Q1’14 growth figure near +2.0%.

The USDJPY jumped to its daily high on the back of stronger yields around improved US consumption data, trading as high as ¥102.01 at the time this report was written. The pair had traded at 101.84 ahead of the data release, and was trading at 101.88 at the time of publication. US Dollar strength was noted elsewhere, with the EURUSD trading lower from $1.3827 to as low as 1.3809.